On Friday morning at 8.45am we set off on our weekend break to Mablethorpe. We were booked in at Haven Golden Sands. My sisters had both been there before and advised me to set off early. I had planned to get the 11.11am train but we ended up on the 9.11am train instead.

The train to Notts was pretty packed but we found seats. My suitcase was a bit of a nightmare though. It is bigger than any of the luggage holds and I had a job storing it anywhere out of the way.
There was a huge gang of teenagers who all seemed to be going to Skeggy too. This didn't please me as I know that the train is usually only 2 carriages and if you can't get a seat it is a 2 hour standing journey. At Notts station we only had 10 minutes to get to the other end of the platform for the Skeggy train. Those teens all ran ahead and I was struggling along with my big old cumbersome and very heavy case. DD & DS had their own bags to carry as well as the shopping bag with all our food and supplies for the journey.

As it happens, there was a whole carriage empty so we comfortably found a table seat and relaxed. Unfortunately not for too long though as that group of teens also found the empty carriage and took up residence. My lovely peaceful journey was ruined by crappy dance and rap music and lots of shouting and swearing and running up and down. There was also this very annoying boy asking every five minutes "Are we there yet?"
I had my PSP with me and attempted to watch the final episode of Skins series 2. I just about managed to blank out all the noise from the train to concentrate enough to get emotional. I was bawling my head off for most of it (Embarrassingly) but then I was crying with laughter throughout the coffin chase scene. I think that was a first for Skins setting the scene to Girls Aloud and Britney Spears which isn't the genre of music you usually get in the show. By the end of the episode I was just about emotionally drained.
I had a bit of a break and then watched episode 2 of Gossip Girl. We had seen the first episode on TV but kept forgetting to watch after that so I want to catch up and carry on watching it on ITV2.

Despite the ruffians, the trip went quite quickly - Of course that was only the second leg and there were 2 more changes of transport to go.
At Skegness we had to go to the bus station and get the bus to Mablethorpe. This was a 1hour trip and we had to wait 40 minutes in the freezing biting wind.

When the bus turned up (5 minutes late) there was absolutely nowhere to put luggage. I first had it alongside me in the wheelchair/pushchair bit but then 2 people with buggies got on so I had to move it. I got up and some woman jumped in my seat. When I came back she told me to sit in the seat next to her by the window. Stupidly I did and was squashed in for the next hour with her bag sticking in my leg and her taking up the whole seat. She was a cantankerous old woman too. She was chatting to me but everytime she asked me a question and I gave a negative answer she would say "Oh but yes it is - I know because I live here" she was telling me how wonderful the pool was at Butlins and even when I said I didn't swim she was going on. Even when I told her I had a fear of water. I told her that we probably wouldn't leave the Haven camp anyway as there was enough to do there. The further the journey went I prayed for her to get off but she just went on reading her book. When she finally did get off I moved to a seat by the children as the bus had pretty much emptied.

We finally reached Mablethorpe at about 1.15pm we got off the bus and were just wondering where we go to get the bus to the camp when chugging along the road came a little mini bus with Haven on the front. I clambered up the steps with me suitcase and the bus set off. The driver didn't take my money but he stopped soon after that at the bus station and took my money then. Only £2 for the 3 of us so I knew it wasn't far.
It was a funny old bus. Everyone who walked past as we sat there waved to the driver and they all knew his name. Most people got on and didn't pay (I realised that is because they are pensioners and had bus passes) 1 bloke even came and told the driver to wait a minute while he went to the butchers and bought some pies.

The Bus driver set us down outside the entrance of Haven Golden Sands at 1.30pm.


It was nice to finally get there but we were 2 and a half hours early for check-in. We struggled across the car park to find the way to go. There wasn't any clear indication of which way it was and the park itself was laid out really badly.
We found our way to the showbar which is where check-in was to be. We went into the Quayside bar to sit and have a drink while we waited.

The service in the bar was horrendous. There was a long queue and they staff were so slow. I waited at the bar at least 15 minutes and just as it was coming up my turn, there was a power cut and the tills all went off. When the power came back on the woman couldn't get her till to come back on, it seemed to have locked her out. By the time I got served I fancied a beer instead of the coke I was going to have.

We sat in the bar for a couple of hours. We had a few drinks while we were waiting. The kids went off for an exploration of the facilities.

At 3.45 I went to have a look in the showbar (Falcon bar) and collected my welcome pack. They give everyone a Haven character card and when your character is called out you can go check-in. Our card was Bronze Naughty Ned and we waited about half an hour to be called. Then we were off to our lodging for the next 3 days.

We were lucky in that our caravan was right next to the entertainment complex.


You always dread a long walk when you get there especially with a big heavy case like I had (My arms are still killing now)
We also had to manoeuvre over a large muddy bog because of all the rain but we were soon inside.
I have to admit I was a bit disappointed - Last year we were lucky enough to get a private caravan so it has all the mod cons plus central heating but this time we were just in the bog standard unit with 2 bedrooms no heating, no toaster and no microwave. There wasn't even a grill pan so I had to be creative when making toast. It didn't bode well that I could see my breath.

We dumped all our gear and then went out for a wander. It had been a long day and we were quite hungry and tired. We explored the Amusements and the supermarket and sought out the food outlets. I was disappointed again because there was only a fish & chip shop.
When we went to Haven 2 years ago there was a chip shop and a Burger King as well as the Pub Restaurant. Yet at Mablethorpe all there is is a little fish and chip shop (that didn't have any fish) and the pub restaurant. Not much variety.

So we had some chips and had a play on the arcades. We wandered around a bit and DS wanted to go up to the "Brain Buster Quiz" at 8.15pm. We weren't sure what kind of format it would take and soon found out it was just like a pub quiz. Each table was given an answer sheet and told to think up a good name. Well we were inventive, we just went with our surname. DS wanted to make a silly name but I am just too boring I guess.

Funstar Matty B was our MC for the quiz. He is from London and can't half talk for England. He went on and on and kept going off on a tangent. It took him ages to get round to the first question we could see it would be a long night.

The first question was who is Phil and Grant's sister in EastEnders. Easy - Sam Mitchell. I can't remember what all the questions were. There were a few more soapy ones in there. Who had an album called the Immaculate collection? Who is Posh Spice married to? What film starred Kate Winslett and Leo DeCaprio on a boat? What is the pub called in Corrie? One of the questions asked where is Matty B from? Of course how did we know but he gave a clue about Only Fools and Horses and so we knew the answer was Peckham.

When we had answered all 20 questions it was time to swap papers with someone at another table. As we went through the answers it was obvious we were doing well. The person we marked had got 18 out of 20. When they were all marked we had to give them all in to Matty.
As he went through the papers, everyone was getting 19 out 20 I was surprised because the questions were so easy I thought everyone would get 20.

So we were victorious as the only team to get 100% right. I sent DS up to the stage to collect our prize - A bottle of *ahem* Champagne and a certificate. As Matty B couldn't just be straight forward to played about and made DS follow him around the stage first before giving him our prize. As soon as I got my hands on the plonk we were out of there.


Next on DS' program for the night was a magic show in the main room (Falcon bar)

We managed to find a table to sit down at the back of the room so DS went to sit at the front on the dance floor with the little kiddies. He loves magic shows.
To be honest this was torture for DD and me. It wasn't the best of magic shows I have ever seen. The tricks were basic stuff that DS can do himself and it was made worse by picking precocious little kids to go on stage who weren't playing along at all. Then when that was finally over he broke into a Ventriloquist act - and not a very good one at that I have to say.

You can imagine the relief for DD and me when (not-so) Magic Mike finally left the stage and it was time for the Party dances. This is the part I most look forward to. I don't get up and dance on the dance floor but It is still fun to dance in my seat. Thing is they hardly do any that I recognise so we had to learn as we went along.

After the partying was over we made our way back to the extremely cold caravan to wrap ourselves up in the duvets and drink Hot Chocolate and eat cake. We put off going to our beds as long as possible as the bedrooms were like ice boxes. I wanted to be so tired I could just drop off.
I tried very hard to get comfortable but the duvet wasn't very big or indeed very thick so I shivered a long time before I finally fell asleep.

Saturday

I woke up at about 5.30am with hands and feet like ice blocks. My nose too was so cold. Outside the caravan I could hear the wind blowing up a storm. I was worried for a moment that the caravan would be blown away just like in The Wizard of Oz. I played my DS for a little while until I fell asleep again. I woke again about 7.30am and managed to get up and put the fire on in the lounge area so that when the children got up it would be a little warmer.

When we were all up and fed we went out for the bus into Mabelthorpe. As we stood at the bus stop the wind was whipping up a storm. The bus came from the opposite direction and the driver indicated to us from the other side of the road that we could get on there. He said that it would save us standing in the cold.

I love Mablethorpe. It is a lovely little town.


Not too big and you can walk round all of it in a hour. We walked up the main street going in and out of all the arcades. Ange had told us about an arcade where they have lots of old penny machines so we had to go in there.
It was fantastic, they had real penny falls machines and old fashion penny games.


There were also some really classic arcade machines like Jolly Jack Tar and the Pile Driver.